1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to the production of natural gas, and more particularly, to a system and method for producing natural gas using a gas dynamic laser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Natural gas otherwise known as CH4 presently has several known sources including wells which are primarily drilled for this specific purpose, as well as occurrence as byproducts of oil well drilling, and mining. Other minor sources such as landfills generate this useful gas. Although plentiful supplies exist, a disadvantage exists as well, the most obvious disadvantage being that these supply sources are not always located in the most convenient places, often vast distances from where the fuel will be utilized.
Another disadvantage exists in that the gas is not always in a pure form when extracted, being mixed with sulfur and other impurities, resulting in energy and time to scrub them clean enough to make them suitable for use. Even then in most cases, after having been purified, the gas must be transported to the user over great distances either by liquefying and moving it in large storage vessels, or by moving it across these long distances through pipelines.
Although not associated with its production, a further disadvantage to current systems of gas supply is that, in recent times, it has become the object of disputes occurring across international political boundaries, causing shortages in certain areas and extreme price fluctuations. These factors have a worldwide economic impact.
What is needed is a system and method for efficiently producing a pure form of natural gas.
Additionally, a recently discovered consequence of our industrial age is an increase of the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our Earth's atmosphere. Such increased CO2 is widely believed to be the cause of global climate changes, resulting in a number of natural catastrophes and meteorological phenomena that caused a great loss of human life. The continued production of CO2 and its resultant increased presence in the Earth's atmosphere could induce further dramatic global climate change, resulting in the further loss of human life and possibly, if unchecked, causing a “runaway greenhouse effect” that could eliminate all human life from the planet.
With the demand for electric power increasing steadily worldwide, thereby increasing the amount of fossil fuels being burned and CO2 emitted, it is readily apparent that some corrective measure must be taken to alleviate this situation. While converting all electric utilities to nuclear power is completely unrealistic, there exists a need in the art for the emergence of fossil fuel burning electric power generation plants that possess the ability to contain all of the resultant emissions in an efficient manner.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,720, 5,129,331 and 5,265,424, naming one of the present Applicants as inventor/co-inventor, were developed to try to address some of the above-mentioned problems. However, there still exists a need for addressing the final disposition of the enormous quantities of CO2 produced by the burning of fossil fuels. There is further a need for addressing the large quantities of CO2 produced as an end product by fossil fuel burning furnace boilers.
The present invention is particularly suited to overcome those problems that remain in the art in a manner not previously known.